


R.I.P To My Youth

by KateJReads



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Anger Management, Beginning after 6A, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Hunters, Liam's Anger, M/M, but they dont know it, they're so cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-07-23 10:56:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 16,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16157603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KateJReads/pseuds/KateJReads
Summary: A very basic and completely Thiam-centric version of Season 6B!When Liam loses control at lacrosse practice, he escapes into the woods only to find an injured Theo waiting for him. Unable to leave the chimaera behind, Liam picks him up and begins a whirlwind day of running, fighting and discoveries that will change his life as he knows it.Theo Raeken has always believed that love was something for everyone except him - that is until he is shot by hunters and found by Liam, the one boy he just can't seem to be rid of.





	1. High Hopes

**Author's Note:**

> The hunters do feature heavily in this plotline but Liam and Theo's relationship is as much a focus as them
> 
> title inspired by a The Neighbourhood song

Liam

There was no part of Liam that felt prepared for his senior year. Not only were Scott and the others leaving him and Mason in charge, but his parents were finally starting to notice his weird disappearances that correlated with the full moon. He was lacrosse team captain as well, and he had a future and college to worry about, and that wasn’t even thinking about the fact that Hayden had left him or his ever increasing anger. Just the other day, Liam had woken up late and had to go hungry to school. When a teacher had later told him he couldn’t have a hall pass to use the bathroom, he’d almost wolfed out on her, and had had to sprint from the room to hide his growing claws and amber flashing eyes. 

They didn’t talk about it, but Liam knew that it worried Mason too. The two of them had worked hard to hide it from Scott all summer at Liam’s request, for fear that he would attempt to stay and help the beta instead of going to Georgetown. Liam might have gone to Stiles – maybe not, now that he actually thought about it – except Stiles had left for the FBI weeks ago, barely a month into summer, and Liam hadn’t really heard from him since. Once upon a time, Liam would have gone to Hayden for help as well, except he hadn’t talked to her since she’d left for London, and she hadn’t called him either.   
“She just left me!” He’d wailed to Mason one day during summer, when it had hit him hard.   
“Not you really,” Mason had counselled. “She left Beacon Hills to protect her sister, not to get away from you. She loved you, Liam.”  
“That didn’t stop her from leaving me. She could have called.” Liam was pretty sure he’d begun to pout by this point.  
Mason had sighed and clapped a hand on Liam’s shoulder. “Well, maybe she’s staying away for the same reason that you are. Talking on the phone to Hayden would be too painful, especially if you can’t see her.” 

Now it was the first day of the year, and Liam felt as though he were a big, red helium balloon about to burst, and all of his thoughts and worries were going to explode out of him. A trip to the guidance councillor had left Liam feeling even more nervous; the new employee had questioned all of Liam’s chosen classes until he didn’t even know what to think. After rearranging Latin for Spanish and AP maths for biology, Liam was left with a timetable that looked nothing like the original – although he had to admit that maybe that was for the best. 

Liam headed to the locker rooms after first period for a double session of sports, one of which was taken up by lacrosse practice. When he’d been appointed captain, Liam had been honoured. However, as the summer had gone on and Scott had been around less, Liam had become nervous. The job entailed a lot of responsibility, something he had little experience with. Not only did Liam have to constantly turn up to practice, he also needed to remain on top form for all lacrosse games and help organise the team for games and extra practice. Coach had been happy to help though, shouting unhelpful comments to Liam, forgetting his name and generally making sure Liam didn’t need to do much as captain. 

Liam felt Mason join his side as he walked down the corridor, and was glad of the steady presence his friend offered. With Mason beside him, Liam walked into the locker rooms, grabbed his gear and donned his jersey for the first practice of the season. 

Practice passed in a whirl, with Mason and Corey watching on the bleachers along with a few customary freshman girls. Once he was showered and changed again, Liam watched as both the first and second string players chatted and changed and laughed contentedly. He wondered if he would feel so relaxed again soon. Unlikely, considering his anger and the pack he was supposed to lead and the town he was supposed to protect. 

“Maybe you should say something.” Mason was beside him again.  
“Huh?”  
“Like a speech or something. You are the leader.”  
“Captain, it’s different,” said Liam, feeling distracted.  
“Yeah, but you should say something to them all, give them some kind of motivational ‘let’s go get it’ talk.”  
“Let’s go get it?”  
Mason shrugged. “Just say something deep and lacrosse-y.”   
“Is that even a word?”  
“Doesn’t matter, no one will know.” Mason gave Liam a shove that propelled him towards the centre of the room. “Now go on, get up there, and channel your inner Scott.”

At the mention of the alpha’s name, Liam stepped up onto the bench and cleared his throat nervously. “Um, hi everyone.”  
People began to look around, the stares making Liam even more anxious. “I just wanted to say that today was a great practice.” He said hurriedly, words tripping over themselves. “We have a great team this year, and we’re gonna do really great, I know it. So yeah, great, go hurricanes!” Liam raised one awkward fist into the air, held it for a second, and then jumped off the bench and sprinted into the corridor, dragging Mason with him.

“That was great,” Mason said, dripping with sarcasm and laughter.   
Liam aimed a half-hearted kick at him. “Stop it!”  
“Of all the positive and exciting adjectives, Liam. I mean come on, what happened to switching it up and trying a ‘good’ or an ‘amazing’?”   
Liam shook his head, laughing as Mason laughed, and walked towards his next class.


	2. Way Down We Go

Theo

Theo opened his eyes. Instead of the street lights that always seemed to penetrate the walls of his truck, there was complete darkness. He stretched his arms out and at elbows length they smacked into walls. Theo stopped, brought them back, and tried again. The same thing happened. Theo thought he must be dreaming, except the metal of the walls was cool under his fingertips, and everything was so, so real. This had to be happening.

Theo banged the palms of his hands against the walls and felt them move slightly under the pressure. He shoved again and again, until suddenly he was tumbling onto a cold, hard floor. Looking up, Theo saw an open draw where he had been, one in a wall of many, many draws. A morgue. Not just any morgue, no, the familiarity of the room meant that Theo was in Beacon Hills. 

He stood up, shaken. Theo had no idea how he could have possibly got here, no memory of driving to the hospital or getting out of his truck. He ran to the door of the morgue, his only thought that he had to get out, out, out. 

The silence was eerie in the deserted hospital corridors, Theo’s footsteps echoing clearly. Surely there should be some people about? And then, from the double doors at the end of Theo’s vision, a girl emerged. She was about Theo’s age – maybe slightly younger – with his same dark hair and eyes. Except her hair was a long, tangled mess and as she approached he saw her eyes were wild with fury. Theo turned and ran in the other direction, but when he tried to move, his sister was there, stopping him. 

“Tara.” He gasped, not knowing what to say, not wanting to plead, but desperately wanting to get away. “Tara. Please.”  
Tara either couldn’t hear him or couldn’t be bothered to listen. With one outstretched palm she pushed at Theo’s chest, and he tumbled on his back to the hospital floor. She took a step forward, and then another. Theo desperately grappled on the floor, fingers clutching and searching for something, anything to defend himself with. But they grasped at empty air, and Theo could do nothing but watch as his sister knelt down and crawled towards him.  
“Tara, stop. Please, Tara.” Theo thought he might be shouting; his voice was hoarse.  
Tara reached level with Theo’s stomach, and stretched out one hand. Then, with painful speed and strength, she shoved her fingers into his chest and pulled out his heart.  
Pain. Excruciating agony beyond anything Theo had ever imagined. He gasped, ribcage contracting one last time, body reaching to take a final, futile breath. In Tara’s bloody hand he could see his heart, clutched tightly. It was still beating, pulsating beneath her gore-coated fingertips. Blood pooled at Theo’s chest, staining his shirt, the floor, everything. Pain. And then, blissful, horrifying darkness. 

Theo opened his eyes. Banged his palms against claustrophobically close walls. Was he dreaming? Theo didn’t know. He fell onto a cold floor, and then Theo was running, but she was there. Clawing at his chest, and then Tara was holding his heart in front of his eyes as Theo’s eyelids fluttered shut one last time. Black.  
Theo opened his eyes. Metal, a hospital floor, his sister and pain, so much pain. Then darkness.  
Theo opened his eyes, he ran, but Tara was there. She took his heart.  
Again.  
Again.  
Again.  
Theo opened his eyes. He was banging his hands against cool metal. No, wait. Someone else was. Daylight poured into his truck; it had to be morning, maybe midday. Theo was lying on the backseat of his truck underneath a blanket and his hoodie. The banging came again, and as his senses kicked in Theo realised it was two people, one on either side. He raised his arms, sitting up, ready to tell the cops that it was ok, that he was moving. Except the men outside his truck weren’t cops. 

They were both tall, and dressed entirely in black. One man wore a black hat, whilst the other had on a long, black trench-coat. Both were holding guns. Both had them pointed at Theo. Raising his arms higher, Theo looked around wildly for a way out, but there was none. If he tried to fight, even with his superhuman speed, the men would shoot him down.  
Heart beating wildly, Theo swung his legs down from the seat and gestured with his arms, signalling that he had no weapon on him. It didn’t matter. The men opened fire anyway.


	3. Unsteady

Liam

It was Saturday and Liam had a lacrosse game that evening, the first one of the season. He was excited, but nervous as well. Being anxious always put Liam on edge, and with his ever increasing rage, he wanted to be as calm as possible for the start of the game. So, Liam had broken into school that morning and snuck into the locker rooms, which were always open - even though it was a Saturday. After grabbing a huge bucket of lacrosse balls and his stick, he’d headed out onto the pitch.

Now Liam was shirtless and sweaty, panting hard. He’d shot countless goals, running and jumping and dodging around invisible opponents. It was just about midday, when he’d asked the team to come for one last, quick practice. Liam felt calm, calmer than he’d been in such a long time. The fact that he was a sort-of alpha, that Hayden had left, that Scott was gone, wasn’t affecting him anymore. Liam felt grounded and safe. That is, until he heard Brett Talbott’s voice behind him.

When Brett had transferred with his sister to Beacon Hills High that summer, Liam had tolerated him. The boy had been through a lot, and Liam had no real reason to dislike him anymore. Liam had even – grudgingly – given Brett a place in the first line lacrosse team, because he was good. Really good. Except Liam had never been able to bring himself to like the other werewolf, no matter how much they had in common. And Brett, with his constant stream of sarcastic, funny and biting comments – all at Liam’s expense – had not helped at all. 

“I know why you’re here, Liam.” The tall blonde was right behind him, crowding Liam’s personal space and interrupting his previous state of calm.  
“Yeah, to practice lacrosse. Duh.” Liam couldn’t help the childish retort, there was just something about Brett that he couldn’t stand.  
“Nope.” Brett was stalking closer to Liam, if that was even possible. “You’re here to work off your aggression.”  
Liam glared. “So what if I am?”  
“If you have to work off your aggression, it means that you don’t really have control of it. And as a teenager and a werewolf playing a competitive sport, that aggression is only going to get much worse. You could lose control and hurt someone.”  
Liam held his ground defiantly. “I won’t.”  
Brett cocked his head as though he was thinking. Then, he was in Liam’s face, backing Liam up against the goal post. “How do you know Liam?” He taunted, crowding Liam’s space and making the beta very frustrated very quickly. “How do you know you won’t just slip,” Brett pantomimed wolfing out dramatically, “and hurt someone there and then. What about Mason, he’s human isn’t he.”

The idea of hurting his best friend made Liam see red. He tried to shove it down with force, but the anger he had worked so hard to quell quickly returned in strength. “I would never hurt him.” Liam growled, eyes flashing gold.  
Brett laughed. The cogs in Liam’s brain turned.  
“You’re doing this on purpose!” He accused Brett.  
“Yup.” Brett didn’t even look ashamed. “If I can get all the rage out of you now, you’ll be fine for the game.”  
“It doesn’t work like that.” Liam ground out, fighting the urge to lunge at the blonde. “You can’t just get rid of it for a while by using it up. Anything could set me off. But I’ve been working on it, I’ll be fine this time.”  
“Are you convincing me or yourself, Liam?” Brett’s eyes were sad for a second, before he resumed his earlier game. “We all know you won’t control it. You don’t have it in you. You never have. Maybe you shouldn’t be captain, Liam,” he said, lips curling once more. “Maybe, you shouldn’t even be on the team, if it’s so hard for you.”

And that was the final straw. Liam, who had been growing steadily angrier, finally let go and lunged with a clawed hand at Brett’s throat. The idea of stopping lacrosse, something he had done even before he had been turned, changed his insides to a liquid, boiling rage. Liam’s fangs dropped down, his eyes flashed and he lunged at Brett with all he had. With incredible speed, the other wolf dodged, growling at Liam. “You’re just proving me right, Liam.” 

Liam lunged again, ready to howl and growl and completely lose control. Except, out of the corner of his eye he saw people. His team, coming over to them to practice. But Liam wasn’t sure he could practice. Now that Brett had coaxed his anger out of him, Liam wanted to hurt and injure all that was around him, teammates included. He turned towards them, wanting to run away and fight at the same time. 

Sensing his dilemma, Brett turned to Liam and there was pity in his eyes. “Run, Liam,” he said, all traces of taunting gone from his voice, “quickly.”  
So Liam did. 

* * * 

The woods around Liam were a green blur as he sped far away from the lacrosse field. The wolf in him had taken over now, and with claws, fangs and golden eyes Liam pounded against the dirt trails, mindlessly running. Birds around Liam tweeted, the sound clear and sharp to his pointed ears. To his left, Liam could hear a stream bubbling around a bend in its path. Ahead was a fallen tree trunk, beige with age and as tall as Liam was. No matter. Liam fell back on his legs and leaped high, easily soaring over the old bough. 

At some point, Liam’s shoes had come off. He didn’t remember when or how, only that he could now feel the hard dirt scraping against his bare soles. 

When the lacrosse practice, Brett and all of his taunts seemed like a distant memory, once Liam was sure he’d been running flat out for hours, he slowed to a stop by the base of a tall, sturdy oak and collapsed in an exhausted heap of wolfish limbs. Letting the feel of rough bark against his back ground him, Liam focused on the sound the birds were making and slowly calmed down. He knew that Brett’s words weren’t truthful. Liam was a good captain and an amazing lacrosse player, even before the help of supernatural speed and strength. Yes, he did have control issues that he was desperately working on, but he’d survived this far without a real incident, and he would continue to survive. 

After what could have been seconds or minutes, Liam’s claws slowly retracted and his eyes returned to their normal colour. He could feel his facial features morphing back as well, until he sat fully human against the tree trunk, still panting slightly. 

Now that Liam was in control, the situation began to sink in. Had any of his teammates seen the glowing eyes? They had been far off, but it was possible. What would Brett tell them to explain Liam sprinting off into the woods like that? Liam felt ashamed for having been baited by Brett that easily, especially as the blonde had been trying to get a rise out of him.  
Cheeks heating slightly, Liam stood up and dusted himself off, checking to see if his lacrosse jersey and shorts were still intact. There was a small rip on the bottom of his left short, but apart from that the uniform was unscathed. Liam’s bare feet however were a little worse for wear. Millions of healing cuts and scrapes adorned his soles from the hard forest floor. Liam was wondering if he should wait the healing out or hobble home when his train of thought was interrupted. 

“Liam.” A voice panted behind him, an all too familiar voice that filled Liam with dread, but also something else. Excitement?  
Liam turned around and came face to face with Theo Raeken.  
“They’re coming.” Theo was sweating, a hand clasped to his side. Then Liam noticed the blood pooling from the chimaera’s shirt, the way he was bent slightly, as if limping.  
“Who, who’s coming?” Liam demanded roughly, not really ready to deal with the hurricane force that was Theo Raeken.  
Theo opened his mouth as if to answer. Then he collapsed on the forest floor, unconscious.


	4. Pumped Up Kicks

Theo

Theo ducked the second the shots sounded, except it was too late. One bullet caught his right side, which had been left exposed when he had raised his hands. Theo crouched on the floor of his truck, curled up in a ball to protect his injured side. Footsteps sounded outside the cab of the truck, and Theo tensed, preparing to spring at one of the men. However, they both stayed outside, taunting him from there.

“Come out, come out, little werewolf,” taunted one man, Theo couldn’t see which. Interesting that they called him a werewolf. The men clearly weren’t aware that Theo was a chimaera, meaning this attack wasn’t personal, but more likely hunters. Which may not have been a good thing, pondered Theo, as hunters tended to be pretty damn good at what they did. 

Shifting, Theo bit back a groan as knives of pain shot up his side. As if the hunters could sense his discomfort, they moved closer, and Theo’s enhanced senses told him they were probably now mere centimetres from his truck door. 

Theo waited until both men were reaching out to open the doors of the truck – the one second where not all of their focus would be on aiming guns at him. Then, letting his wolfish instincts take over, he launched his weakened body at the windscreen and out of the direct line of fire. 

Glass shattered and tarmac scraped at Theo’s legs as he rolled and then jumped to his feet, dizzy from blood loss. Eyes flashing yellow, he turned away from the hunters and hurtled into the nearby woods as gunfire surrounded him.

After only a few steps, Theo’s legs began to weaken and he was forced to slow down to prevent collapsing there and then. The bullet wound was still gushing blood and hadn’t yet begun to heal. Theo suspected the hunters had bullets that might prevent that, and growled at the thought. However, Theo had been through too much, killed too many people and betrayed too many friends to die in the woods outside Beacon Hills. He shoved a fist into the wound to prevent further blood loss, grimacing at the lances of white hot pain, and limped quickly onwards.

Theo double backed on himself, covered his tracks and did everything he had learned to confuse the hunters, but whenever he stopped, his supernatural hearing still picked up the hunters not too far behind him. Every step brought him closer to collapse, and the colours around him were changing and merging before his tired eyes, confusing him more. Theo was about to howl, alerting hopefully Scott McCall’s pack - and sadly the hunters - to his whereabouts, when he crashed into a small clearing.

There, standing with his back to Theo and dressed in red lacrosse gear, was Liam Dunbar. Theo almost cried with relief, except he hadn’t cried for years, not even in hell, and he wasn’t about to start now. 

“Liam.” Theo gasped out, feeling the world around him stand still for one brief second.  
The beta turned around, staring at Theo.   
Except Theo couldn’t focus on that, because he could hear the two men closing in on him and he – and Liam he supposed – had to get out of there. “They’re coming.” He gasped out, just as the ground beneath him turned sideways and he collapsed in a heap.

And then there was black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Give yourselves a point if you've figured out that the chapter titles are song names - you guys have the best music taste! ;)


	5. I Knew You Were Trouble

Liam

Liam stared at the unconscious chimaera before him. Theo was lying prone on the forest floor, his side gushing blood from a bullet wound that wasn’t healing, but also didn’t carry the usual odour of wolfsbane. Liam thought this was a good sign. Even so, he decided that it was probably better to get Theo some help ASAP. 

If Theo’s wound was uninfected then it should heal normally, if the healing was stimulated. Pain, Liam recalled, helped to get the body to heal supernaturally. 

Swallowing, Liam grasped Theo’s wrist, not entirely unhappy to cause the chimaera discomfort after all that he had done to Scott and him and Hayden and Stiles. However, Theo had helped the pack with the wild hunt when Liam had brought him back, and he and Liam had even struck some sort of almost friendship.

In fact, Liam wasn’t actually sure how he felt about Theo. The chimaera had betrayed the pack and manipulated him into almost killing Scott. And then had proceeded to actually kill Scott. But Theo had shown Liam some real vulnerability in the hospital, and Liam had felt sorry for the older boy. Theo had been through a lot – basically all of which was his own fault, but still – and had fought by Liam’s side. He had even sacrificed his own safety, which Liam knew he always put first, to ensure Liam wasn’t taken. When Liam did think of Theo, his thoughts were no longer tinged with that fiery rage, but something softer now. Liam wasn’t really sure what that meant, and his ponderings were suddenly interrupted by the sound of leaves rustling. 

Turning quickly, Liam suddenly remembered Theo’s warning about people coming. He could have slapped himself for being so silly. The men now stood opposite Liam were both wearing all black and had stony expressions on their faces. Liam guessed they were hunters from the assortment of deadly weapons each one carried - the deadly weapons that were now trained on him and Theo, who was still unconscious. The man on the left looked to his partner as if waiting for approval. It was all the time Liam needed. 

Instead of running at the two men, Liam sprinted to Theo. With a huge grunt, he lifted the chimaera over one shoulder and bolted into the trees. 

 

Liam’s jersey was soaked in Theo’s blood within seconds of running. He tried to ignore the fact that the chimaera was basically bleeding out on top of him and focus on running, but he couldn’t; it was a very distracting thought. 

After maybe only another half hour Liam began to lag. Theo’s dead weight was considerable, and he was really slowing the beta down. For a second Liam considered how much quicker he would be if he just dropped Theo off in the woods. He shoved the thought away roughly, feeling slightly disgusted with himself.

Liam decided that at some point he was going to have to face the hunters, because he wasn’t going to lead them back to Beacon Hills and the rest of the pack. This meant he would need a place to hide and try to heal Theo, one that he could get to pretty damn fast. During his first few full moons, Liam would often end up running naked through the woods. There was a cave where he would wake, confused and sore, in the early mornings. If Liam was correct, the cave wasn’t too far from where he and Theo were at that moment, and he should be able to get them both there safely. 

With that destination in mind, Liam shifted Theo’s weight on his shoulder and carried on through the trees.

***

The entrance to the cave was more hidden than Liam had remembered, although he didn’t think the hunters were close enough behind to see him enter it. But, they would eventually figure it out, and so Liam needed to be quick. He lay Theo on the rock floor gently and let his claws extend from one hand. Then, with a softness that he had never thought about using on Theo, Liam wrapped his clawed fingers around the chimaera’s wrist and dug the claws in, drawing trickles of blood. 

Theo’s eyes fluttered open at the faint sting, which was a good sign. But Liam’s ears began picking up movement nearby, and the bullet wound still wasn’t healing. Letting loose a panicked breath, Liam removed his hand from around Theo’s wrist and slowly moved the chimaera’s blood soaked shirt aside. The wound was leaking rivulets of red still, and with a not-so-small gag, Liam dug one clawed finger inside the hole.

Theo moaned softly, but Liam had found what he was looking for. With careful hands, he removed the bullet from Theo’s side and chucked it across the cave. Then he returned the hand to Theo’s wrist and dug his claws in once more. The chimaera groaned again at the ache, and Liam was worried the hunters might find them before Theo could heal. 

But the wounds he had made in Theo’s wrist began to heal. And as he looked upwards, the flesh in Theo’s side began to knit itself back together.


	6. Back To Black

Theo

Theo opened his eyes. A hard surface was pressing against his back, but Theo knew that he wasn’t in his nightmare because leaning over him, claws around Theo’s wrist, was Liam. He could feel blood trickling down his hand from where Liam’s claws had broken the skin there, but the familiar prickling sensation in the same place told Theo that the wounds were healing. 

Suddenly, Theo felt pressure on the gaping wound in his side. He groaned in pain, seeing stars and blackness. It took every ounce of his dwindling control to stay awake. 

“Ssshh,” said Liam, covering Theo’s mouth with one of his strong, tanned hands. Theo was suddenly very aware of the feel of the pads of Liam’s fingers hovering over his lips. That thought was quickly overtaken when Theo remembered what was going on.

“Where are we? There were hunters, they shot at me near the gas station.” Theo struggled to get up, waiting for the biting pain that should shoot up his side any second. Nothing. Twisting, Theo looked down to see that beneath the matted remains of his grey shirt was new, fresh skin. He stood up, feeling weaker than normal but still himself again.

“I think they’re outside,” Liam told him, studying Theo. “You fainted and I had to get you out of there so you could heal.”

The fact that Liam had saved him didn’t sit that well with Theo. “You should have just left me,” he said. “I was just dead weight. You should have run off and gone back to the pack where you’d have been safe.”

“Well I didn’t.” Liam’s jaw had set. “And you don’t need to look so pissed off about it because I did sort of save your life.”

Theo thought about that for a few seconds. “I guess you did.” He spoke quietly, and the words held more meaning than Theo first thought they did. 

Liam opened his mouth, as if he were about to reply. Except any words were cut off when the slight sounds of movement gave way to the two hunters standing there at the cave entrance. They were the same as Theo remembered; both dressed in black with grim expressions and black, shiny weapons everywhere. This time, Theo didn’t give them time to pull a trigger. Shifting as he went, he leapt at the first hunter with a growl.

With the swipe of one clawed hand Theo knocked the crossbow out of the man’s hand. Then he pushed the hunter over forcefully, kicking the man’s chest hard. Digging his claws into leather, Theo dragged a hand through the hunters jacket, shredding it in one go. He swiped at the bare skin before him, leaving gashes in the hunters pale skin. Satisfied that the man wouldn’t rise anytime soon, Theo turned to find Liam battling the other hunter.

Liam’s hair was sweaty and sticking to his forehead. His lacrosse jersey was ripped, revealing lots of straining muscles as the younger beta held the hunter up with one hand and squeezed, cutting off his airways. When the man began choking, Liam dropped him against the rock floor and watched as he was knocked unconscious.

Theo really should have made sure that his hunter was out though, because the next thing he knew, the injured man had a gun out and was pointing it at Liam’s chest. Liam moved as if to fight the hunter, and the man’s finger moved on the trigger, but Theo was already running. He smashed into the hunter’s arm, breaking bones and ignoring the sharp, red hot pain that suddenly hit his leg. Then he hauled back and punched the hunter in the face, on his jaw, on his neck, until he felt his chest constrict and finally stop moving.

The hunter was dead, and Theo didn’t really feel any remorse about it, because he had been about to hurt Liam. However, there were probably more hunters who could find them soon, and so Theo grabbed Liam’s hand and tugged him outside, running back towards Beacon Hills. 

 

***

 

Theo and Liam were running, feet pounding hard against the forest floor. Unsure if they were going to be pursued by more hunters, they both pushed their bodies to the limit, putting as much distance between themselves and the cave as they could. Theo’s feet were bare due to the fact that he didn’t sleep in shoes, and the soles of his feet were sore and swollen from the impact of the hard dirt. Being partly shifted wasn’t helping much, and his mud caked heels were raw and aching.

Theo was also exhausted. From being shot, running for his life through the woods, healing, fighting the hunters and then back running again, his body was trembling slightly and adrenaline was the only thing keeping him going. There was a slight pain in his right leg too which Theo consciously ignored. Even foggy and weak, Theo’s brain knew what he would find if he looked down, and so he averted his gaze every time, focusing instead on the only real thought his brain could form: keep running, keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Liam kept shooting sideways looks at Theo, which bothered the chimaera. He couldn’t guess what Liam was thinking about, whether it was about him or not, whether it was a good thing or a bad. What did Liam think about Theo killing the hunter? 

Theo knew that Scott McCall and his pack followed a more moral route, one that he wasn’t invested in. And Theo knew that Liam was aware of his past and all that he had done, all the horrible precautions to survive. Except knowing and seeing are two very different things, and what did Liam think now that he had seen Theo beat the hunter to death before his eyes? Did the beta hate Theo now, was he disgusted by what Theo had done? More importantly, why did Theo care?

They kept on running in silence, neither boy speaking. Theo opened his mouth many times to say something to Liam, but closed it every time. Liam didn’t need to be ok with what he had done, he just needed to be alive.

Theo wasn’t entirely sure where they were going, or what they would do when they got there. He was heading in the general direction of Beacon Hills, but had no plan for what to do when he and Liam arrived. He knew that Scott had left town now for college, and that Liam was the alpha stand-in for him. What he didn’t know was how many of Scott’s pack had still remained in Beacon Hills. Theo knew that Stiles was training for the FBI, but was Lydia still here? What about Malia? 

Things between Theo and the McCall pack had been strained for a while now. Theo had helped them with the ghost riders and Douglas, and had wanted to join the pack. However, fear of rejection and generally wanting to be alone and mope had prevented him from asking, and so Theo had spent the last months lonely and cold in his truck. Theo needed the pack to help him – and Liam he guessed – if the hunters were indeed pursuing them again, and he doubted Liam turning up with him in tow was going to help matters. But he wanted Liam to survive the hunters – otherwise getting shot would have been for nothing, that was the only reason – and so Theo needed to find the remainder of the McCall pack.

After endless minutes of hard ground and biting wind, the adrenaline that had previously been pumping through Theo’s veins began to deplete. And with it came the searing pain Theo had tried so hard to ignore. Against his better judgement, Theo looked down and stifled a loud groan. Blood was pouring in rivulets from a torn circle in his right leg, mangled flesh dyed crimson red and brown. The wound was worse than his earlier one, and was beginning to hurt more as well. Theo had been shot again.

Continuing to run at Liam’s pace was killing Theo. Pain lanced through his right leg with every step, and he almost fell over countless logs that were in his path. He wanted to cry out with every bang of his foot against the dirt, to crawl into a ball and let the pain melt away. But Theo kept running, getting slower with each second that passed. And finally, weak from pain, he tripped over a thick log and fell gracelessly onto his ass on the forest floor. 

“Hey, what’s up?” Liam slowed to a stop beside him. 

“Just got a little scratched, nothing much.” Theo motioned to the weeping wound in his leg.

“Scratched! Theo you should have said something.” Liam said, voice rising shrilly.

“We had to run from the hunters and get to safety.”

Liam sounded slightly like a petulant child now. “Well, you should have said, we could have stopped earlier.” 

Then he stripped off his lacrosse jersey in front of Theo, leaving him shocked but not complaining.

“What are you doing?” Theo’s voice wasn’t high pitched, but you could still sense the tension in it.

“Bandaging the wound, Theo. Its first aid one-oh-one.” Liam spoke with a clear and serious tone, but the smirk on his face betrayed him.

Muscles rippled in Liam’s tanned back with every movement. The beta leaned forward towards Theo and began wrapping the strips around the wound in his leg, tying the two ends together tightly to staunch the bleeding. Then he donned the remainder of his jersey and dusted his hands off on the front of it. 

“You should go… run from the hunters… get to the… rest of the pack.” Words were beginning to fail Theo as black spots danced at the sides of his vision. Pain was all he knew now, like being back in one of his nightmares. 

“I’m not leaving you.”

Frustration burst through Theo, giving him energy. Liam had no sense of self preservation, making Theo getting shot a waste, and it was starting to piss him the hell off. “Liam, for god’s sake go! Get help and bring it back for me if you want, but you should leave.”

“No.”

Theo let out a low, weak growl. “Leave, Liam.”

There was a pause, and Theo closed his eyes, as if it would help ward off the agony he now felt, like his leg was on fire. Next to him, Theo heard the rustling of leaves on the floor. Maybe Liam had left him. The thought left him feeling relieved and alone at the same time. 

Except before Theo could tell himself that it was better this way, that at least being shot wasn’t for nothing now, he was being lifted up. Liam’s strong arms hoisted him over one shoulder, as if Theo were a sack of potatoes. He readjusted for a second, until a tanned arm held Theo tightly against Liam’s muscled shoulder. 

Even so, Theo fought it. “You’re too tired… Liam. You should leave me… I’m going to slow you down.” 

Theo’s eyes fluttered shut again and Liam began running – slower this time – through the woods, Theo’s prone form bouncing slightly like a strangely shaped ball on his shoulder. Wind whistled past his wolfish ears as Liam replied. “Trust me, Theo.”

And, against his better judgement, Theo did.


	7. Lean On Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot more happens in this chapter so unlike every other time I wont be posting a Theo chapter with this one... Hope you all enjoy!!

Liam

Theo had been right about one thing: Liam was exhausted. Every muscle in his body was aching and tired from the distance he had run earlier, and Theo wasn’t a light burden to carry. It was only now that he was running back did Liam truly understand how far he had gone that afternoon, the miles he must have travelled. He had been running for endless minutes with Theo on one shoulder, and still none of the woods looked familiar to him. 

He wasn’t going to make it back to Beacon Hills. 

Liam didn’t know what to do, because every step he took slowed his pace down even more, and made his trembling legs get weaker. He tried readjusting Theo’s dead weight, but that did nothing. 

Even with his supernatural strength Liam knew he wasn’t going to make it; increased speed did little when your muscles refused to obey. Liam just kept plodding on, even whilst his brain was screaming at him to slow down, rest, STOP! Pain lanced through his buckling knees as he went, barely even jogging anymore. 

When he had been going for barely minutes more, Liam’s legs finally gave way. Falling to the hard floor, he was squished against mud by the almost unconscious form of Theo, despair coursing through him.

The sensible thing to do would be to leave Theo, but Liam couldn’t do that. To start with, Scott would not approve of leaving an injured person to die - even if that person was Theo Raeken. And then there was the fact that Liam had never been able to leave Theo behind, not in hell, not with the wild hunt and not now. Theo was different to the others. He believed in Liam’s plans and Liam could be himself around the chimaera. He knew Theo understood his darker side and didn’t judge him for it – maybe because of all the awful things he himself had done, but still. Liam felt safe around Theo, like he was coming home. And he was tired of ignoring it.

Safe. The words struck a chord in Liam, jogging a memory of a conversation he and Scott had had back when Scott had been preparing to leave Beacon Hills. 

“There’s a place you can use if you need to, Liam,” Scott’s eyes had turned serious for a second as he looked fondly down at his beta. “I don’t think the owner would mind you using it. If you need some alone time, or a place to lie low, or somewhere safe, there’s a loft just outside of Beacon Hills, on the edge of the preserve.”  
“How will I find it?” Liam had been scared. Hayden had just left him, and the thought of doing the whole alpha-stand-in thing without her made him anxious.  
“Follow your senses, Liam, and remember everything you can about Derek Hale.”

Liam did remember Derek; his wry smile, brooding silences and confidence no matter the situation. Derek had helped him through his first few full moons with Scott and Stiles, before he took to running naked through the preserve. If Derek’s loft was outside Beacon Hills, Liam could avoid bringing more hunters to the town and his friends and get both himself and Theo there safely. 

Taking his mind back to those earlier days of being a werewolf, Liam transported himself to the memories of Derek and the scent he carried with him. Derek in the locker room breaking the lacrosse stick, Derek fighting with him and the pack against Kate and the Berserkers, Derek handing him the triskelion in the prison van in Mexico. 

Closing his eyes, Liam let the wolf inside him take over. And there it was. Underlying each memory was a bitter scent, very faint and musky, as if old. It carried with it a deep blue-purple tinge like a bruise and edged every memory that Liam had of Derek. 

Liam opened his eyes again, knowing they would be golden now. His supernatural senses took in his surroundings, searching for the scent. Everything around Liam was sharper, clearer. He could now smell the damp that clung to moss on the trees, hear woodlice scuttling around beneath his feet and see beads of water on the surface of leaves. 

Many other individual scents underlay the smell of the forest, each tinged a slightly different shade. Liam’s nose sorted through them, pushing aside red and gold and green ones, ones that belonged to Malia and Lydia, ones that belonged to Stiles and Scott. And there, entangled with the scents of his pack, was the faded navy scent of Derek Hale. 

Liam sucked in lungful’s of air and let it overwhelm him. Then he picked up Theo again – the chimaera gave a vague groan of protest but lay still – and picked up his slow jog from earlier.

***

It turned out that Derek’s loft wasn’t that hard to find, which was good because by the time he reached it, Liam was ready to pass out. He had jogged for maybe another hour with Theo on his shoulder slowly bleeding out, panic beginning to overtake exhaustion as his primary emotion. When Liam’s knees were shaking, his eyes were closing every other second and his left arm was stiff and painful from holding Theo in place, he finally came across the loft. 

It was situated just outside of Beacon Hills, with the preserve and woods to its back and a quiet, run down road to its front. Surrounding the loft was Derek’s scent – the strongest Liam had experienced it. The entire perimeter was tinged deep indigo in Liam’s wolf’s eyes, even if the scent had faded with age and absence. At the front of the loft Liam could see the large square window that he remembered from his one trip here, the window frames worn from constant replacement of the panes. 

Liam dropped Theo to the side of the building and tucked the weak chimaera behind a tree. He tightened the ripped shirt around Theo’s leg and hoped that no one would walk past and see him. Then Liam walked carefully around the sides of the loft, deciding which would be the best way into it. 

At the back of the old brick building was a large set of double doors, and as he could see no one around, Liam grabbed Theo and picked him up one final time, legs almost giving way. He tried the handle of the doors and groaned in frustration. They were locked. It didn’t bother Liam too much though, because he had come too far to be stopped by that. Without a second thought, he hauled back and punched a fist through the glass doors. As Liam had hoped, the whole glass pane smashed as one, and so he stepped through carefully with Theo still over his shoulder. 

The many steps of the spiral staircase were arguably the worst part of Liam’s entire day, including being attacked and wolfing out in front of Brett. With dead legs, Liam took each step at a snails’ pace, fighting the urge to just sit down and give up for an hour of rest. But he needed to get to the top, because he and Theo needed supplies, and the chimaera needed to heal. And so Liam fought through, gritting his teeth against the pain and letting his wolf and supernatural instincts carry him through it. 

When he finally reached the top, Liam set Theo gently down on the stone floor and used a claw to break the lock. Wooden double doors opened onto the main warehouse space of the loft, with multiple spiral staircases leading up into the ceiling. Liam lay Theo against the stone wall, propping him up. In the drawers of the kitchen cabinets built into an alcove off of the main space he found some bandages, tape and scissors, and so he set to work with healing Theo. 

Firstly, Liam cut away the blood-soaked remains of his lacrosse jersey. When that had been chucked halfway across the room, he leaned closer to Theo’s leg and examined the bullet wound. It was still bleeding furiously, and from it also seeped a purplish substance. Taking a hold of his panic and shoving it as far away as he could, Liam proceeded to inspect the hole, searching for the bullet. It was still inside Theo, embedded into the side of the large wound. With a lot of déjà vu, Liam inserted a claw into the wound and slowly extracted the bullet. Theo moaned slightly, but remained unconscious. 

With dismay, Liam saw that the bullet wound was still weeping a purplish substance as well as blood. Liam had enough experience with wolfsbane to know that this wasn’t a good sign. However, he still put a hand on Theo’s wrist and attempted to take the chimaera’s pain. Black lines ran up both of their wrists and arms as Theo’s breathing became lighter and Liam felt agony for a few seconds. When it was over, Theo’s leg still wasn’t healing. 

Liam grabbed the scissors from next to him and dug one sharp tip into Theo’s palm, stimulating pain just as he had before. Theo let out another moan, louder this time, but it didn’t matter to Liam. The gaping wound in Theo’s leg was still bleeding, but there was no longer a purplish tint to it. 

With exhausted fingers, Liam wrapped a fresh bandage tightly around the other boy’s shin and made sure that Theo looked comfy-ish. He then lay his head on the cool floor, next to Theo’s draped hand, and promptly fell asleep.


	8. Only Love Can Hurt Like This

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So here's the big moment we've all been waiting for... enjoy :)

Theo

The inside of Theo’s eyelids were a pleasant, warm, orange colour. The shade reminded Theo of being at home and safe, surrounded by a family who loved him. He lay there perfectly still for a few minutes, content to imagine that if he opened his eyes, he would find Tara waiting for him, not to steal his heart away but to embrace him. In fact, this was the first time Theo hadn’t dreamt about Tara since way before he had been sentenced to hell. Instead he had dreamt of nothing, the black silence blissful in comparison to what he usually saw.  
When he finally did open his eyes, Theo found Liam’s head right next to his sleep-stiff hands.

Liam sleeping was a sight that Theo never wanted to forget. The beta looked peaceful and serene, completely at odds to the frantic, angry teenager that Theo had gotten to know. His head was warm, his hair soft as it rested gently against the hand that Theo had draped to one side. Dark eyelashes touched Liam’s cheek and his mouth was open, lips parted slightly as he drew in gentle breaths. Watching Liam like that, Theo was filled with urge to protect him, protect him at all costs. He had always felt a tenderness towards Liam, ever since that night with the ghost riders in the hospital.  
“What are you doing?”  
“Being the bait.”  
The look on Liam’s face as those elevator doors closed would haunt Theo forever. The fear and anger and sadness mixed together was ingrained forever into his brain. No one had cared about what happened to Theo ever, not even Tara when they were really little. But Liam had, and in turn Theo cared about what happened to Liam. He tried not to, because surviving would be so much easier without it, but he couldn’t help himself. He wanted to keep Liam somewhere far away from Beacon Hills in a little bubble of happiness where no pain could ever reach him. He wanted to live in it with Liam. 

Theo sort of hated Liam for making him feel this way, because caring meant being let down and hurt and upset. He wondered if Liam would still see him the same way after what he had done to the hunter. Theo searched inside himself for some regret, but found none. The only reason he might regret killing the man was if Liam hated him for it, but even then he wouldn’t, because Liam would still be alive. 

Theo wanted the killing to mean something to him, but it didn’t. It was just another item in a long list of bad things that he had done to survive, none of which he truly regretted.  
Outside the big glass window opposite them, the sky was painted pink and gold as the sun rose. It was a beautiful sight that Theo rarely got to enjoy, and so he sat on the floor and embraced the moment. He was safe, Liam was safe. He was happy, and in the light of the glowing sun all of his fears melted away. It was just him and Liam in that moment, and Theo wanted it to last forever. 

***

Theo was up and walking around the kitchen area when Liam finally woke. He had to lean against cabinets every few steps because the wound in his leg wasn’t healing quickly enough and he was still weak from it. Theo didn’t realise the beta was next to him until Liam yawned loudly.

“Are you okay?” Liam asked, stifling another loud yawn by pressing his fist against his mouth. 

Theo wanted to say that as long as Liam looked like that – sleepy and relaxed – he would always be okay, but decided against it. “Yeah, my leg kills a bit but its healing slowly.” He motioned to his leg and the lack of blood oozing from it. 

“But it wasn’t healing last night. There was wolfsbane, and even pain wasn’t stimulating you to heal.” Liam’s brow furrowed in a way that Theo decided he liked.

“I’m a chimaera. Wolfsbane doesn’t affect us like it does werewolves, exactly as the dread doctors intended. It does slow down my healing process though, but only by a little bit.”

Liam looked surprised. “Oh.”

“Coffee?” Theo grabbed two matte black mugs from a cupboard above his head and gestured with one in Liam’s direction.

The beta nodded absentmindedly. When Theo had heaped spoonfuls of granules into each mug and added hot water from a fancy boiling water tap, he handed one to Liam and sat cross legged opposite him on the floor. Liam took a long sip of the frothy black drink before returning his gaze to Theo. He looked serious, and Theo was pretty sure he knew what was coming. 

“Why did you have to kill him?”

They both knew who ‘he’ was. Theo thought about the question and what answer Liam would want him to give. It hadn’t been entirely in defence of Liam, because simply knocking the hunter unconscious would have worked too. It wasn’t really because Theo had wanted to either. It had just happened in the moment, like things did. After a pause, Theo gave his answer.  
“Because he would have killed you.”

And there it was. The thought of Liam dying terrified Theo. He didn’t think he could survive it, and he had no idea why. But it was true. Theo couldn’t let Liam die, couldn’t live a life without him, not anymore. And that desperation and fear had channelled into a rage he could remember. It had been a living, breathing monster. 

“But you didn’t have to kill him, Theo. You never had to kill him.” Liam was looking at Theo with an expression he couldn’t place. It looked angry, but not. Was that hurt he could see in Liam’s eyes? 

Theo didn’t think he could take it if Liam hated him, so he tried to brush it off. “I get it, you don’t like me after what I did to that hunter.”

Liam just stared at him as if he were dumb. He appeared to be shaking, which worried Theo slightly. Finally, after a long pause, the beta opened his mouth, his words coming out slightly shrill. “Don’t like you? You think I don’t like you?”

This startled Theo. “Well, you – um,” he began, stumbling over the words. Liam interrupted him before he could finish.

“I can’t breathe when I look at you. At night, your face is all I see when I close my eyes. When I’m not near you all I think about is you. I hate being more than a metre away from you, and when you’re in danger it kills me a bit too. I think I’m in love with you. I don’t know why or how because you’re – you and I’m me and you’ve done such awful things. But I think I do, Theo - I think love you.”

Theo stared in silence. He didn’t know what to say. Love – was that what this desperate, crumpled mess of fear and pain in his chest was? Theo didn’t think he knew what love was; the Dread Doctors definitely hadn’t covered it. Had he loved his parents? Yes, but he couldn’t remember much of that, and loving Tara had only brought him physical pain in his dreams. He had never loved someone in the way Liam meant, but he could relate to the painful experience Liam was describing. When he thought Liam had been about to die, Theo had been terrified. He had risked his life – the thing he valued most in the world – to save Liam from being taken in the hospital. Liam made him feel alive when he was near and dead and empty when he wasn’t. Maybe this was love. Theo just had no clue.

When Theo didn’t reply, Liam turned away and walked over to the kitchen area, throwing his mug angrily into the sink. He didn’t look surprised or hurt, which upset Theo. Liam looked as if he had been expecting a similar reaction, but had said the words anyway, almost as if he couldn’t keep them in any longer. 

And suddenly, Theo knew what he wanted – no, needed – to do. He stood from where he was sat on the floor, leaving his coffee mug abandoned. With wobbly legs he made his way over to Liam, whose back was to him. Theo turned the beta around until they were nose to nose, with him standing a little taller than the werewolf. Liam’s face was stormy and confused. Theo bent his head slightly and kissed him.

Kissing Liam was like coming home and being chucked out into a storm at the same time. Liam’s lips were soft and gentle to begin with, but soon they moved with hunger against Theo’s, as if he wanted to devour Theo, to join with him until they were the same person. This was what love was, Theo thought, as his mouth moved desperately on Liam’s, loving every second of the kiss. It wasn’t a choice, something that you wanted. It was something that you needed. Theo needed Liam, and it scared the hell out of him.

When he began to run out of breath, Theo pulled his lips away from Liam’s for a second and smiled against the beta’s mouth. He felt so happy, so peaceful in that moment, that it wasn’t surprising it had to come to an end. After all, since when had life been kind to him before?

A scratching sound echoed through the loft suddenly, startling both him and Liam. They looked round, Theo’s heart beating frantically and his wolf preparing to fight, to defend Liam at all costs. But no one was breaking into the loft. Instead, they had left a message. 

An ugly black mark – all sharp edges and scratches – in the shape of a spiral was now etched into the large window, taking up most of the space.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's the Theo chapter to follow last weeks Liam one. Liam's outburst is actually inspired by one of my favourite romantic scenes ever, from Never Fade by Alexandra Brackern when Liam Stewart starts yelling to Ruby about how he loves her and he can't breathe when he looks at her etc and he can't remember why (its such a beautiful moment, I cried!!)


	9. All I Want

Liam

Kissing Theo was maybe the best thing that had ever happened to Liam. He couldn’t say that he had been waiting for this moment for so long, because he hadn’t. Liam hadn’t even realised he loved the chimaera until the words had spilled out of him, ugly and loud. As soon as he spoke them though, he knew that they were true. He wondered why it had taken him so long to figure it out. Theo tasted of blood and sweat and very, very bad decisions, and Liam loved it. 

The chimaera pulled back slightly, except he stayed so that their noses almost touched, and smiled against his mouth. Liam didn’t think he had seen Theo smile properly more than once or twice before, but the sight was beautiful to him. He didn’t care in that moment what Theo had done before or what he might do next, only that he was here now, with Liam.  
Liam’s happiness was splintered by a scratching that came from the other side of the loft’s main room. He pulled sharply away from Theo and turned his head. There, on the opposite wall where the window took up all the space, someone had marked in thick black a strange, squiggly, spiral shape. Theo ran towards it, chanting out loud.

“Shit, shit, shit.”

“What?” Liam knew that vandalism was illegal, but for a murderer Theo’s reaction to the crime was very extreme.

Theo ran a hand through his hair, messing up the dark brown strands. “It’s an old Latin symbol I think,” he said, brow creasing slightly. “Someone drew it here for a reason.”

Theo’s furrowed brow made him look vulnerable, a look Liam found surprisingly appealing – but wait, they had much bigger problems at that moment. “Well damn it!” Liam was scared and frustrated, why couldn’t anything in his life be easy? “All I wanted was a quiet first season of being the stand-in-alpha but no. First the hunters and now this!”

“Do you have signal?” Theo asked, phone already in his hand. “I have one bar but I really need some 4G if we are going to find out what this symbol means.”

Liam reached behind him to his back pocket where his phone normally was only to remember that he was in the remainders of his lacrosse gear. “It’s in my locker at school,” he told Theo, shaking his head. “I leave it in there during practice.”

“That would explain the lacrosse gear.” Theo cocked his head and added conversationally, “you know, you never did tell me why you were in the woods yesterday afternoon.”

Liam heaved a sigh. Was it only that afternoon? It felt like days ago that he was being taunted by Brett. “Later,” he promised Theo. “We have bigger problems to deal with right now.”

Theo nodded and began typing on his phone, turning to face the large window and symbol now permanently on it. There was a long pause as they both waited with baited breath for the internet to stop being so slow. Finally, Theo exhaled and began scrolling. Liam moved closer to him, until their shoulders were pressed against each other and Liam could feel Theo’s breath on his ear. He relished the contact, burning into his brain the feeling of being this close to Theo Raeken. 

On the cracked phone screen was picture after picture of ancient looking symbols, each with its own name and description next to it. Theo scrolled quickly down the page, until his finger rested against the home button. There, Liam saw, was a picture that matched the symbol on the window. The image showed a much smaller version of the circular shape against a yellow-brown background that mimicked old parchment. Every spike and curve of the shape was identical to the one drawn on the window, and the attention to detail creeped Liam out a little. Theo took a screenshot of the browser, closed the tab and then reopened the photo in his gallery. Next to the picture was the ancient name and a brief description of it.

“Spiralem Vindictae,” Theo read aloud, frowning slightly.

“Spiral of Vengeance.” Theo looked at him, and Liam shrugged. “What, I like history.”

Theo smirked, mouth curling up in a way that made Liam’s insides melt a little bit. “I’m impressed.”

Liam leaned closer to Theo and read over his shoulder as the chimaera summarised the description of the symbol. “It originated in France. Groups of warriors would draw it on the homes of their enemies after they had been wronged to declare a war.”

The cogs in Liam’s brain began to tick as he ran through what he knew now. “The Argent family originated in France – that’s where we get the silver legends from. And they were the first family of hunters weren’t they?”

“Maybe not the first, but definitely one of them.”

“Right, so that means most hunters now trace back ancestry to them.” Theo nodded, and Liam continued. “What if the hunters drew this symbol, the rest of them – if we assume there are more. What if it’s them declaring war on us for killing one of their own, for wronging them?” 

“It makes sense. But didn’t they declare war on us first by trying to kill me?”

“Maybe. But hunters see it as a duty to kill werewolves. They don’t view what they do as taking lives, but helping humanity. So when you killed the hunter, they declared war on us. Or at least let us know they are now out for vengeance.”

“It works.”

Liam shook his head. “It’s the only idea we have.”  
Theo seemed to consider this for a minute. “How do we know how many of them will come for us?” He didn’t look scared, but you could never tell with the chimaera.

“We don’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I fit in the best Thiam line of the show!! (Credits to Teen Wolf for the history/I'm impressed lines :D )


	10. Afraid

Theo

Theo was scared. It wasn’t a feeling he was used to, and it wasn’t for himself. Theo was scared for Liam - or rather, what might happen to him. He didn’t know what he would do without Liam, who was this beautiful, broken, perfect thing that Theo didn’t deserve, that had finally come into his world, and now was going to be taken away from him. Theo was terrified about what he would do, who he would be, without the beta. 

At that moment, Liam was pacing back and forth and muttering under his breath, occasionally speaking up with details for a plan. Theo didn’t really know what plan, but that didn’t matter. As long as there was a plan. 

“We’ll have to assume there’s loads of them,” Liam said, swivelling on his heel. “So we’re gonna need a way of taking out lots of them at the same time. And quickly; we have no idea how soon they’ll be here either. If they even come here. Maybe they’ll ambush us when we leave.”

Theo had no idea how he and Liam were going to pull this off, but he knew someone who might. “We should call Mason.”

“No!” Liam turned to face Theo sharply, desperation and urgency written across his face. “No. I’m not involving anyone else, this is our fight, and no one else gets hurt because of it.”

“You mean it’s my fight.”

“What’s yours is mine.” Liam said matter-of-factly, and Theo wasn’t going to argue with that logic. “Plus, if you hadn’t taken out the hunter I’d be dead now, which would be bad.”

“Very bad,” Theo agreed, but he didn’t want to let the issue go completely. “I didn’t have to kill him though, you said it before.”

“You didn’t. But none of us are perfect Theo, trust me, I know that better than anyone.”

I love you. Theo wanted to say it, he really did. Damnit, he wanted to scream it from the bloody rooftops for all of America to hear. But he couldn’t, because he wasn’t going to hurt Liam. There was a distinct possibility only one of them was going to make it out alive after this, and Theo was going to fight tooth and nail to make sure it was the beta. Protecting himself had been Theo’s only goal for so long now that letting go of it was strange. But it was also refreshing, knowing that he had a chance to do some good, to make sure that this bright, burning, electric star could stay where he belonged. 

Electric. That was it! “Liam, what if we electrified them?”

“That could work. But how would we get them all quick enough… Water! We’ll flood the floor with water and pass a current through it, meaning anyone in the water is immediately electric shocked!”

“Is that even a phrase?”

“It is now. Also, I may have forgotten that ‘electrified’ was a word...” 

Theo just smiled. He wanted to remember this moment, joking with Liam and how good it made him feel. 

***

Theo and Liam had successfully flooded the loft, and from what Theo had heard about the owner of it, he didn’t think Derek Hale would be too happy about it. Liam had sliced the main cable connecting the electrical generator in the stairwell to the lights in the loft with a claw. Then he and Theo had carefully placed it to the side of the laked-out loft, the cut end just dipping into the water so hunters wouldn’t notice it first thing. 

With nothing else to do except wait for the possible fight of their lives, Theo and Liam were sitting on the countertop of Derek’s kitchen units, feet swinging above the water and legs pressed tightly against each other. 

Theo broke the silence. “Maybe they won’t come.”

“Maybe. But with my luck in life they definitely will. And in massive numbers.”

“Wow. I thought I was the pessimistic one in our relationship.” He realised what he had said as soon as the words slipped out of his mouth, but Theo didn’t rush to reclaim them. He watched as Liam processed what he had said.

“Is that what we are? In a relationship?”

“If you want to be.”

“Of course I do.”

Instead of telling Liam how happy that made him, Theo reached over and put one of his hands on either side of the werewolf’s hips. Then, with the help of his supernatural strength, he lifted the surprised Liam up and placed him on his lap, face inches away from Theo’s own. Liam shoved long locks of his hair away from his eyes and stretched his legs out until he was straddling Theo. Theo almost moaned out loud.

“Mm. I like you like this,” he said instead, taking his hands away from Liam’s hips to grip his muscled shoulders tightly.

“I like being like this.” Liam was smiling and looking right at Theo, and suddenly they were kissing again.

Liam tasted of caramel and cold night air and smelt like the forest. It was an intoxicating scent that Theo couldn’t get enough of, and if could have bottled it he would have, and then worn it every day for the rest of his life. Theo pulled Liam closer, until he could feel every inch of the werewolf pressed up against every inch of him. This time he did moan, not wanting to keep his feelings concealed from Liam.

“Whoever thought I could get Theo Raeken so worked up?”

“I did. You always had me worked up, from the minute you brought me back and told Scott he couldn’t send me to hell again, that I was your responsibility.”

Liam smiled against Theo’s lips, the sight sending shivers down Theo’s spine to other areas. “Well, you are mine now so look how that worked out.”

“Mmmm.” Theo groaned again and brought his lips back to Liam’s, trying to put all of his desperate, crazy feelings for the beta into that one action. The kisses deepened, until Theo was panting for breath and Liam was subtly shifting his hips down, rubbing them against Theo’s. The friction felt like heaven, and Theo revelled in every brush of Liam’s heated skin against his own. Lacrosse shorts were baggy and thin, so being close to Liam like this meant that Theo could feel everything. And he liked what he felt there. 

Liam dug nails into the bare skin of Theo’s shoulder, and nails quickly turned into claws. Theo almost yelled aloud at the sensation, and his eyes flashed gold as his wolf reached the surface, ready to be let out. And that was when he heard it. Small movements downstairs – quiet and subdued. Then slow, steady beats as sets of feet tried to climb the stairs without being detected. He knew that Liam heard it the second he did, Liam’s eyes flashed and he looked towards the door. Theo nodded, voicing what they were both thinking.

“They’re here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty so here's the next chapter! I stole the whole electrifying thing from Season 3 Teen Wolf (so credits to them) because honestly I'm just not that great at in depth plotlines!


	11. Famous Last Words

Liam

Liam’s heart was pounding furiously in his chest as he ran towards the cupboard by the window. He yanked the door open hard, pulling the handle off in his efforts. With a clawed hand he quickly opened the fuse box door and switched the electricity generator back on. No lights flickered on around the loft. Instead, the water crackled slightly a foot beneath Liam’s feet. He was standing on one of the many wall indents he and Theo had kicked in around the loft to allow them to get around the electrified floor. 

Theo was standing opposite Liam, balanced expertly with one foot in a dent and the other resting against the vertical, white painted wall. Below them both was the faint sound of thudding footsteps as the hunters continued their ascent as quietly as they could. Liam wondered if they knew they had already been heard. 

“It’s time.” He told Theo, who responded with a nod. They both began to make their way carefully around the loft to their decided places. Liam would be behind the cupboard so he could switch the electricity off when he and Theo would need to fight. Theo was now standing to the left of the double, inwards-opening doors, ready to leap out and take out hunters when necessary. 

Liam moved with extra care towards the cupboard because he had stuffed a kitchen knife into his boxers. Theo had tried to get him not to, but Liam wanted to be extra prepared after what happened in the cave. He didn’t know if the knife would help him with that, but it was worth a shot – they were desperate after all. When he was balanced with both feet in different kicked-in holes, Liam took the knife out of his boxers and clutched it tightly in one hand. If he didn’t want to use it, he could always throw it in the cupboard. 

Outside the loft, the noises suddenly stopped. Liam’s heart began thundering more loudly, and he wondered if Theo could hear it. The chimaera was looking back at Liam in a way that scared him, as if this was the last time he would look at Liam and he wanted to absorb all the details. 

“Liam – “ He started, but Liam interrupted him.

“No, tell me later.” 

Because there would be a later. There had to be. 

 

Liam thought the hunters would barge in quickly, but that didn’t happen. Instead, tiny sounds came from outside that he could barely pick up as he and Theo were left waiting for the inevitable. Silence followed, louder than any Liam had ever experienced. And then suddenly the double doors burst open, knocking Liam out of his thought process. A group of men and women dressed solely in black burst forward into the room, each one carrying a gun and an assortment of other deadly weapons. As four hunters at the front of the group sprang forwards into the water, Liam counted their numbers in his head. Four, five. Six, seven, eight, nine. Ten. 

There was a sickening sound as the first four hunters were violently electrocuted the second their feet entered the flooded loft. The scent of burning flesh filled the airy warehouse space and Liam gagged slightly. Across the room from him, the remaining six hunters began to spin around, guns pointed at him. They hadn’t spotted Theo yet.

Liam sprang into action, leaping into the cupboard and shoving the knife handle-down back into his elasticated boxers- his lacrosse shorts were baggy and loose. Using every ounce of supernatural speed he had, Liam tore the fuse box door open and pulled the handle down, listening as the faint hum of energy died. Then he jumped from the cupboard to the flooded floor and joined the fight. 

First to engage with Liam was a woman a few inches taller than him. She had striking orangey hair and aimed a gun at his head as he landed from the cupboard. Letting his wolf instincts take over, Liam swiped at her arm making the shot go wide. It hit the wall a few metres to his left, leaving a shower of mortar and paint flakes in its wake. Liam let her watch the course of her bullet before he broke her wrist with a strong swipe of his fist and yanked the gun from her, shoving her into the water and standing with a foot on her stomach. 

With his other leg Liam kicked out as a second hunter came within his reach. This one was a man with a gun in each hand and a wide grin on his weathered face. Shots rang out as Liam desperately ducked, narrowly avoiding a bullet in each eye. Liam broke a bone in the hunter’s leg with one kick and swiped widely at the man’s chest with his claws. Long scratches appeared in the man’s chest, but Liam hadn’t done any serious damage. He ducked as a third bullet whistled past his ear, just nicking the skin of his lobe, and dove headfirst at the hunter, getting rid of one of his guns. 

In one move Liam had picked the hunter up by his waist and spun, chucking him at one of the hunters approaching from behind. The two men stumbled and fell, but recovered surprisingly quickly. Satisfied that the woman beneath him was thoroughly unconscious, Liam moved away from her to deal with the pair of hunters before him. 

Liam ran at the men, scattering the two hunters so that he stood in the middle of them. With an outstretched hand he turned, swiping viscously at the first hunter’s chest as he felt the second pull a gun on him. While the initial man gasped in pain, Liam turned his back on him and faced the next, ducking with supernatural speed when he fired a shot at Liam. The bullet intended for him ended up embedded in the stomach of the hunter behind Liam, who let out a satisfied growl and jumped on the remaining of the two men. Once he had dealt the hunter another swipe of his claws, Liam picked him up as he had done previously and spun, surveying the loft.

Derek’s once pristine home had been turned into chaos. Lying prone on the flooded floor were the original four hunters and the woman Liam had knocked unconscious. Near the woman was the hunter that had been shot. He had a hand clutched to the wound in his stomach, which was steadily leaking blood, and was propped at an odd angle against one of the kitchen units. Then, opposite Liam, there was Theo, fighting two hunters at once with the body of one lying dead in the water by his feet. Theo fought like a hurricane, forceful and swift and deadly, swiping and kicking with brutal accuracy and strength. It was sort of beautiful to Liam, who took a second to admire the way Theo’s muscles rippled as he moved, and how his dark hair stuck to the sweat on his forehead. 

Liam remembered the hunter he held aloft when the man began to fight back, struggling and kicking in Liam’s arms. With a grunt, Liam threw the hunter in Theo’s direction where he bowled into a woman fighting Theo with a wicked looking knife. The pair fell to the floor with a crunch as bones were snapped. When neither got back up again, Theo turned to look at Liam as he left gouges in his opponents shoulder and neck.

“Look who finally joined the fight.”

Sparks of outrage flew through Liam. “Finally? I’ve got rid of three, and you’ve floored what, one?”

“Well, two now.” Theo’s tone was conversational but the look in his eyes savage as he kicked a gun across the loft and punched his opponent hard in the throat. The man’s eyes bulged for a second before he clutched at his neck and gasped for air. In another moment he was down on the floor, clothes soaked with water. 

“So that leaves one of them right?”

“Right.” 

Liam turned to find their final opponent, hope flaring through him. Maybe they could actually do this after all.   
The last hunter was still standing at the entrance to the loft with his arms folded against his chest. Like his companions he was dressed in tight black trousers and a thick black jacket, with a gun at his waist and a crossbow at his back. He was taller than both Theo and Liam and thickly built, with strong arms and a big head and neck. His eyes were beady and small, his hair violent red and styled in spikes. 

Liam was about to voice that the man should have fought with his comrades instead of watching them all lose, except he didn’t get a chance. The hunter drew his gun with blinding speed and began shooting wildly. Whilst the bullets were numerous, they weren’t shot with accuracy, which lead Liam to wonder at how experienced the hunters actually were - especially since the nine others had been floored so easily. He and Theo immediately dropped to the floor, water spraying as they ducked just out of the line of fire. Wood chips and chunks of cupboard flew as the hunter destroyed Derek’s well-stocked kitchen, and Liam felt slightly guilty for offering the loft up to be decimated like this. 

Eventually, the hunter’s ammo ran out and he had to reach for more. The seconds this took provided just enough time for Liam and Theo to leap up from the floor and attack, Theo on the man’s right and Liam on his left. In a mere few swipes, they had the final hunter bleeding badly and on his knees. Theo leaned forwards and put his hand behind the man’s head. Then he slammed it forwards until the man’s skull connected with the stone floor in a sickening crunch, until he was bleeding and lying still in the water. 

Panting heavily, Liam straightened where he stood and helped Theo up. They stood there next to each other for a few precious moments, enjoying the taste of victory. All they got was a second though before the noise of a gun being cocked sounded from behind them. Liam turned, heart beating furiously loudly as his first opponent pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger.   
“For Jacob.” She said, as the bullet flew in Liam’s direction.

The world slowed down until everything was happening in slow motion. The bullet was flying through the air towards Liam’s chest. Theo was flying through the air towards the bullet, as if to sacrifice himself for Liam. And the knife in Liam’s boxers was pressing painfully against his skin. Liam yanked it out desperately and surveyed the scene before him one last time.

Then he hauled back and threw the knife.


	12. I Fall Apart

Theo

 

Theo fell to the floor of the loft with a grunt as Liam’s knife embedded itself in his thigh. No longer in the line of the bullet, he was forced to watch as a volley of shots rang out through the room all heading in Liam’s direction. Theo’s heart was in his mouth as a bullet hit Liam in the shoulder. Then in the thigh. Then in the side. Blood was pouring from the wounds and Liam fell to his knees with a painful thud. Theo thought he might be screaming, maybe crying. He hadn’t cried since he’s killed Tara, but there were tears streaming down his face now. It wasn’t supposed to go this way, Liam was supposed to survive!

With an anguished yell Theo launched himself at the hunter, pummelling his fists into her face. “For Liam.” He said, as he punched and punched and swiped and hit, as she stopped breathing and he rose from where he knelt. Theo ran to where Liam lay on the floor bleeding. His eyes were closed and he would have looked serene, peaceful even, if it weren’t for the blood staining his lacrosse gear brown. Theo scooped Liam up into his arms, the weight feeling so right there that fresh tears fell down his cheeks in a messy tumble. 

In front of Theo, one of the hunters on the floor began to slowly rise. From the flooded loft floor they picked up a gun, but Theo was there before he could point it. He kicked the man in the chest, listening without pity as the hunter let out of a grunt of pain. 

“Run.” Theo said, and the desperation and anger and pain that he felt must have shown on his face, because the hunter stood, turned and fled the loft on shaking legs. With one last look at the chaos that was Derek Hale’s loft, Theo followed suit with Liam held tightly against his chest. 

***

“Help!” Theo burst through the doors of the hospital with a crash, panting hard and yelling as loud as his lungs allowed him. “Somebody help me!”  
Doctors and nurses looked around, some hurrying to where Theo was already moving. He shoved people aside and lay Liam gently on a hospital bed before turning to face the hospital staff. “He’s been shot. You have to help him now!”

Theo didn’t care that he was shouting, that he was half shifted and had glowing gold eyes and claws appearing at his fingertips. He must have looked mad and savage to the doctors, but they surged forwards none the less, wheeling Liam down a corridor and donning pale green masks that covered their mouths. 

“What happened son, can you remember?” A young male doctor was standing next to Theo, resting a hand on his shoulder. Theo shook it off roughly. 

“He was shot three times. In the shoulder, then the thigh and then the side. The right side.” Theo didn’t think he would ever forget that, the sight of Liam being hit by bullet after bullet, the sight of him bleeding and gasping and falling to the water-covered floor. 

“Thank you. It will be ok, son. Wait out here and we’ll come for you as soon as we can.”

“I’m going in with him.”

The man shook his head. “We can’t allow that son, I’m sorry.”

Theo didn’t really care what they could allow. He shoved the man aside and pushed through the double doors of the operating theatre. Liam was lying unconscious on the bed in the middle of the bare room. Three doctors were moving quickly around the theatre gathering scalpels and talking quietly to each other. When Theo burst in, they all looked over. Two moved towards him, trying to usher him out. Theo growled and pulled his claws out, fully ready to fight. He wasn’t leaving Liam, not like this, not now, not ever again. 

“Stop. Stop!” Melissa McCall was hurrying towards Theo, hands held out in front of her. Theo hadn’t realised she was one of the doctors in the theatre. “Look, I know you want to be with Liam. But you can’t stay here during surgery, its hospital policy. Liam will be fine here without you, you have to leave so that we can operate.”

Theo didn’t move.

Melissa sighed. “Theo, Liam needs you to leave.”

Theo paused. He wanted to stay and watch, ensure that the doctors were able to heal Liam. But he wanted Liam better more, and he trusted Melissa McCall. She knew what she was doing. Silently, he turned on his heel and slammed out of the room, taking up residence in a straight-backed hospital chair directly outside. 

Theo could hear everything that was going on in the theatre, down to the rhythm of each doctor’s breathing. After seconds or minutes or hours scraping noises sounded as metal rubbed against metal – one bullet was out. There was a long pause as the doctors moved onto the next bullet, digging tools in to try and remove it. 

Metal against metal again after another long pause and the second bullet was removed. Theo heard as the doctors moved onto the third, murmuring about how Liam had most likely got lucky. Except no metal sounded as a bullet was removed, and the wait was getting longer and longer. Finally someone spoke.

“This one’s lodged in.” Said a voice. Theo’s heart broke slightly. “It looks as though it’s nicked his lung fractionally.”

“We need to get it out now.” The second voice sounded worried. Theo’s heart sped up and his chest began to constrict.

“He’ll bleed out in seconds if we try that.” Melissa sounded calm but fear undercut her voice. Theo gripped the bottom of the chair hard, claws ripping the itchy fabric.

The second voice spoke again. “It’s the only way. If we can’t operate on his lungs now then he’ll die anyway.” 

“Ok. He’s as stable as he’ll ever be, you have to do it now.” Melissa McCall’s voice was still steady, but her heartbeat wasn’t. 

Wet, squelching sounds reached Theo’s ears as near silence fell over the theatre. Then – 

Frantic beeping from the heart monitor and the doctors began shouting. 

“We’re losing him!”

“We have to resuscitate him now or it won’t matter about his lungs!”

Thumping as they pressed against Liam’s chest. Gasping as they realised it wasn’t doing shit. Theo burst through the doors as a silence finally fell over the room. Melissa McCall broke it.

“He’s gone.”

A final, long, beep from the heart monitor sounded as the line on the screen went flat. 

Theo turned and ran, not looking back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> BEFORE YOU HATE ME!!!!: remember there is still another chapter!!! (and thats all I'm saying...) :)


	13. When I'm Gone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you listen to Apologise by one Republic while reading this it makes everything seem sadder... :)

Liam was surrounded by darkness. He wasn’t in a room, wasn’t anywhere as far as he could tell. There was nothing around him except black, and even that he was pretty sure was a figment of his imagination. He didn’t remember how he got there, only the sound of a trigger being pulled, a heart monitor going flat.

Was Theo alright? It was almost ironic, thought Liam, that not so long ago he had been happy to wave goodbye to the chimaera as he entered hell, and now in a state of almost death his only thought was of the boy.

Liam was pretty certain he was dead. He couldn’t be sure, because when did anyone actually know what death felt like? But everything added up: being shot, his heart failing, then darkness. He wondered if there was an afterlife. Would he finally get to meet Allison if there was? After having heard so much about Scott’s ex, he had to admit he was kinda curious about her.

As if pondering his fate had called it forth, a light appeared in front of Liam. It grew, and he gladly moved towards it. He didn’t want to die, didn’t want to stay in this calm, dark nothingness. Liam began clawing at the circle of white before him, willing it to get bigger. He could hear a voice, they were repeating something over and over. His name, he realised. They were saying his name. With a last push, Liam shoved himself through the sphere of light.

And then Liam opened his eyes.

 

 

Theo was standing in a room of dead hunters. The smell of blood stained the air like red wine did a new white shirt, until it filled every pore in Theo’s body. Satisfied, he ripped the head off of the corpse nearest him for good measure and stalked out of the door, slamming it behind him with such supernatural force that the house itself shook for a second.

The second Theo had left that hospital room he had begun to hunt down those responsible for the unthinkable – Liam’s death. Returning to Derek’s loft, Theo had picked up the scent of the last living hunter and followed it to that very room, where he had found (and proceeded to kill) six more who were with her.

They hadn’t even realised what was happening, hadn’t even had time to draw weapons before Theo was upon them, slashing and ducking and throwing hunters at other hunters, knocking them to the floor where he proceeded to rip organs out of chests. Only when his hands were slick with bodily fluids had Theo thought of stopping, and even then it had been only the thought of Liam – what he would have done – that had swayed him from chopping each body into bite sized pieces.

Theo now walked down a deserted street with no plan, only that he had to get out – out of this damn town and away from any reminder of it or Liam. Having never let himself care about anyone before, the hurt he was feeling was a new sensation. And Theo hated it. He hated the way his chest hurt and constricted at the mere thought of Liam’s name, his scent. He hated the way he now felt as if a piece of him was missing – worse, this was so much worse than what he had felt after killing Tara. Compared to this, the pain and guilt he had so easily managed to shut out after what he had done to her had been barely the lick of flames against his skin. This wasn’t like that – this was an inferno, burning Theo up from the inside out.

Eyes flashing yellow, Theo let out a snarl that pierced the quiet night and shook his head back, letting his wolfish canines snap forward. He was in no mood to keep control, didn’t want to. Control meant rationally thinking things through, meant thinking full stop. And all of Theo’s thoughts were of Liam. Prowling down the road, Theo didn’t even hesitate when a Beacon Hills cop car pulled up next to him, just walked towards it and ripped the door open. Hard. Except, instead of a young, weak man just begging for Theo to let his rage and pain and despair out on him, Sheriff Stilinski was sitting behind the wheel, a gun pointed at Theo.

He didn’t even have time to blink before the Sheriff pulled the trigger.

 

 

“Liam?”

Melissa McCall was standing above Liam, eyes dark with worry. Her hair was a mess, there were bags under her eyes and her voice sounded strained.

He nodded in reply, not sure if his voice could form actual words at that point.

“Oh thank god.” Melissa sank into a chair beside Liam as he finally took in his surroundings. He was lying in a hospital bed in what appeared to be an abandoned operating theatre. Melissa held a scalpel clenched tightly in one hand, its sharp tip coated in blood that dripped steadily onto the floor. Liam could hear a faint hum of electricity flowing through the room, keeping screens and machines alive. He took a huge, blissful gulp of air and sat up. And then realised that he was bleeding.

“What happened?” He said, voice hoarse. “Theo, is he okay?”

“Theo is fine,” Melissa stood up again, facing Liam. “And you will be too.”

Sure enough, as Liam looked down at the wound in his chest, fresh skin began to form around the mangled bits as it started to heal.

 

 

_Theo was in a field of flowers, the sun beating warmth onto his bare back. He was sitting on a blanket, jean-clad legs stretched out before him. Next to him, also bare chested, was Liam._

_“Where am I?” he asked Liam, admiring the way the other boy’s chest rose and fell with every breath he took._

_“In your own subconscious.” Liam was playing with Theo’s fingers, and he loved every moment of contact between them._

_“How?”_

_“Scott got wind of your killing rampage and wanted to stop you before the humans got to you, they sedated you with a form of wolfsbane.”_

_Theo considered this. “So this isn’t real?”_

_“I don’t know,” Liam turned and smiled at Theo, looking so damn alive that it hurt. “it’s as real as you want it to be.”_

_“But why would my subconscious bring me to a flower-field, I’m not exactly the cake-and-rainbows guy, remember?”_

_“Oh I disagree,” said Liam, pulling Theo’s lips towards his own for a brief peck that left Theo desperate for more. “I always knew you were a flower child at heart.”_

_Not really wanting to argue, Theo pulled Liam closer and kissed him properly this time, savouring the feel of Liam’s beating heart beneath his fingers. He wanted to tell Liam that he loved him now, when everything appeared to be perfect. Except deep down he knew this wasn't really Liam, and the thought of telling this made up version those words felt like a lie. So he ignored the urge and enjoyed kissing Liam in the sun._

Liam was sitting in a chair opposite Melissa McCall, sipping from a huge mug of tea. “What happened?” He demanded again.

She sighed. “From what I guess, you and Theo were ambushed by hunters?”

Liam nodded in conformation and Melissa continued.

“Theo brought you in with three bullets buried inside you. We managed to get two of them out while you were still breathing. But the third one wouldn’t budge. It seemed to be burrowing towards the first major organ it found – your lungs. If it punctured them, you would bleed out internally and die within the hour. If we extracted it you would bleed out externally and die within the minute.”

Liam remembered throwing the knife, Theo being out of harm’s way. He remembered getting shot, and the heart monitor flat-lining. “So what did you do?”

“I knew my one chance of saving you was removing the bullet and stimulating your healing. But I could never pass that off to the other doctors. When they were focused on you I tampered with the monitor, making it read zero. Then I carted you off and removed the final bullet.” She sighed again. “There was so much blood. I used a scalpel to scrape away some skin, causing enough pain to hopefully stimulate your healing. At first I thought it hadn’t worked, you stopped breathing and your heart skipped a beat. But then you did heal, and it had worked.”

Liam sat in shock for a second. So he really had been dead. Almost. That would be an interesting story to tell people at some point. But first, he had more important things to deal with. “Theo,” he said, the name a prayer on his lips. “Where is he?”

Melissa cast her eyes downwards.

“Just tell me,” said Liam, walking towards her. “Please.”

She sighed. Liam noticed that she did that a lot. “He completely lost control when he thought you'd died. He found out where the remaining hunter was and killed her, along with some more of her hunter friends. And then began terrorising residents by prowling the streets half-turned into a werewolf. Scott had him sedated.”

Liam shoved the thought of what Theo had done to those people aside. He would think about it later, deal with it later. Right now he just wanted to see him. “Where is he now?”

“Back at my house.”

Liam was already walking out of the door.

 

 

_Dream Liam was lying next to Theo, their hands entwined. The sun was still shining above them, which was weird because Theo was pretty sure a cloud should have come by now. Birds were singing and insects buzzing around them as Dream Liam sat up and said “let’s turn.”_

_“Huh?” Theo was confused._

_Dream Liam turned to face him, a serious expression on his beautiful face. “Turn into a wolf with me.”_

_Theo laughed. “Can we even do that in this place?”_

_“If it’s your subconscious then anything is possible.”_

_That was true. Theo sat up too and searched inside himself for that switch. When he found it in the same place it usually was, he reached down and flipped it, enjoying the ripple that went through his limbs. And then he was standing beside Dream Liam on four legs._

_Next to him, Dream Liam turned too, into a beautiful grey-brown wolf that was much bigger than Theo. Theo wondered how that was possible, given that Liam had never been fully shifted before, few werewolves ever were. As if in response, a voice spoke into his mind._ Anything is possible here. _Dream Liam was grinning, showing a lolling tongue and rows of white teeth. Theo sent a thought back._ Race you.

_He sprinted off, strong hind legs leaping over blades of grass and logs and twigs, front legs eating up the field with ease. Dream Liam was easily keeping up with him, running in perfect time beside Theo. And suddenly he missed real Liam again so much that it hurt. He stopped running, letting the feeling overtake him. He deserved it, he thought, after everything he had done. After letting Liam die. It should have been him on that hospital bed and not the other way around. Theo hung his head and growled at the pretty flowers and grass that all seemed so fake now._

_Dream Liam was nowhere to be seen when Theo raised his head again, but this time Theo didn’t mind. Eventually he would wake up from this sedative and Liam wouldn’t be there either. He might as well get used to the idea. Lost in grief and despair once more, Theo almost missed it when the voice began speaking._

_“Theo.” It said, saying his name like it was a prayer, “Theo, please wake up.”_

_But Theo didn’t want to wake up, didn’t want to face a reality without Liam. He fought the voice and the inescapable pull he felt towards it. With every fibre of his being he fought the voice until he couldn’t fight it anymore._

_Until he opened his eyes._

Liam was standing before him, so beautiful and gorgeous and perfect and alive. And Theo knew this was real, knew the world could never be that cruel as to give him Liam again only to take him away for good. So he launched himself at the werewolf, relieved when he felt skin and bone and something real beneath his fingers.

Theo breathed in and out once. “I love you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End!!  
> I hope you liked this story, I had such a good time writing it, although its actually sad thinking its over now. As always, any constructive criticism and comments are very welcome, I would love to know what you all thought!! Thank you so much for all the kudos you've left me and you're lovely comments!
> 
> Also, if you've known at least 8 of the songs that are chapter titles then I applaud your music taste whole heartedly!!

**Author's Note:**

> All feedback is welcome, I would love to know what you did or didnt like!! But please be constructive and not just randomly hate on my story if you dislike it!!


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